Katie Porter isn't part of 'The Squad.' But the freshman House Dem is stirrng up trouble for Trump

[Hortensis]

36. :) Katie was a Warren protegee, and Harris's.

Porter's one of 95 members of our Congressional Progressive Caucus and a strong progressive, but of course not a "squad" type.

538 and some other analysts are using the term "superprogressives" to differentiate the minority who represent the farther left, especially ones allied with anti-Democratic Party dissident groups, as all four members of the squad are, from the far, far larger population of progressive Democrats.

The big differences between the large majority of progressives and the superprogressives are usually less in policy goals than in attitude of the latter toward their Democratic colleagues, seeing them, as Bernie Sanders put it, too much like Tweedledum to the Republican Tweedledee. Also, before they'd ally and compromise with progressive Democrats to achieve their shared goals, superprog groups have at times been willing to not only fail to achieve all goals but even let the Republicans take power and destroy existing progressive government.

We're hoping the squad won't ever go that far, but some dissent is necessary since too much cooperation risks eliminating the whole reason for a dissident group's existence. And with it the small but very real power that national attention creates. Even though Nancy's correct that they only have 4 votes against 231 other Democrats, Ocasio especially is raising a great deal of money that makes her someone who can't be dismissed.

We saw the squad playing to their public when they recently took a stand against the majority by refusing to vote for funding to care for already badly neglected children imprisoned in Republican detention camps. This was even though existing funding was about to run out. All the majority progressives, including Porter, felt they could ethically meet the emergency needs of the children and also take a stand against kidnapping and abusing them, but the superprogs needed to publicly disagree.

In any case, the significant differences in basic orientation and political positioning show why Katie Porter could not be one of the squad. She and the rest will do her level best to work with them to achieve common goals, however.